City Slang

Grand notions

For those Detroit youths who came of age during the Reagan years and found shoegazing and early alt-rocks oceanic guitar feedback as energizing as the sound of Ford-metal-machine music was for Iggy Pop, the lure of Liberty or Deaths opening salvo  "Where on Earth is Kevin Shields?" should be enough for at least a few novelty listens.

Luckily, there seems to be more happening with P.S. I Love You than this simple My Bloody Valentine namecheck.

Liberty or Death is a melange of songs culled from post-Majesty Crush side projects headed by vocalist David Stroughter, former frontman for that now-defunct early 90s bliss-rock outfit. P.S. I Love You has been in existence in one form or another since 1996, but has only recently put together enough steam to release a full-length record and a consistent live lineup. So P.S. I Love Yous future depends largely on whether or not Stroughter and friends can capitalize on the better moments of this at times wonderful (but in the end wonderfully mediocre) long-player.

The album is heavy with great ideas: The impudent opening riff to "Where on Earth ?," the Shakermaker-esque vocal churn of "No Sharks Allowed," and the Storm In Heaven arrangements of "Unless I See You Again" and "New York," both of which lend the project a sense of beauty. But the songs seem to delve into high school diary material more than once: my first time in New York ("New York"), my first hydroponic experience ("Windmill Friends"), my first love ("P.S. I Love You"). These songs sound more like good demos than the grand statements for which P.S. I Love You strives. All of which makes Stroughters sense of urgency sound strained over the spare arrangements, like an ungainly teenager stuck in shoes three sizes too small.

Like Majesty Crush, which released a single on British indie label Ché, P.S. I Love You has kept its connection to the British indie scene by releasing its first 45 ("Where On Earth is Kevin Shields?"/"No Sharks Allowed") on Londons space-edged Rocket Girl label. But the band will need more than indie-cred if it is to live up to the promise offered by Stroughters grand mannerisms or the will of the band to remake the world  or just Detroit  in its own out-of-focus image.